NGOs alternative statement regarding the B+30 progress implementation in the region UNECE

Referring to the Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 23 February 2023 # ES-11/6. Principles of the Charter of the United Nations underlying a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace in Ukraine and United Nations General Assembly Resolution 68/262 adopted on 27 March 2014 by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly in response to the Russian annexation of Crimea and entitled “territorial integrity of Ukraine.”

Referring to the stated point in the UNSCR 1325 that peace and stability are the preconditions for implementing the Women’s Peace and Security Agenda (UNSC res/1325-2000).

The NGOs from Ukraine and other countries of the UNECE region made this statement as follow of the Beijing+30 Regional Review Meeting, titled “Reviewing 30 years of Beijing Commitments to Accelerate Gender Equality in the UNECE Region,” on October 21-22, 2024, in Geneva, Switzerland.

We must underline that the UNECE region has been suffering from wars since 2008 (Georgia), 2014 – ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine, war affects Lebanon and Syria. All these actions caused massive ways of refugees to the European countries and increased the political power of the radical voices calling for the limitation of human rights in host countries. The hybrid wars affect the rights of women in many countries of the region. Examples of their effect are the limitation of activities of the CSOs (adoption of the law on foreign agents in Kyrgyzstan and the Government’s force to do this in Georgia, which will limit the work of the women’s CSOs), political violence against women candidates (brutal propaganda campaigns against President of Moldova Maria Sandu who support the integration of Moldova to the EU, which necessitates reforms to ensure  the high level of access to justice and human rights protection). 

The above-mentioned examples demonstrate the creation of barriers for women to participate in civil society and political processes, and women’s organizations struggle to find resources. This remains the case despite ample evidence existing that women’s participation contributes to more robust democracies and longer-lasting peace, as stated in the UNSCR 1325 and BPfA (Section E).

Russia employs human torture in illegal detention, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, summary and arbitrary executions, and disappearances of children. The country’s aggressor kidnapped twenty thousand Ukrainian children, human rights activists and journalists are especially vulnerable to arbitrary detentions. Thirty Ukrainian journalists are still in Russian prisons, and seven women journalists were killed doing their professional jobs, like Victoria Amelina, who documented CRSV, and Victoria Roschyna, who was tortured in illegal Russian captivity. 

We must deplore the dire human rights and humanitarian consequences of the aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, including the continuous attacks against critical infrastructure across Ukraine with devastating consequences for civilians, and express grave concern at the high number of civilian casualties, including women and children, the number of internally displaced persons and refugees in need of humanitarian assistance, and violations and abuses committed against children. The attacks on the energy system of Ukraine and the occupation of the Chornobyl and Zaporizhzhya nuclear stations are severe threats to nuclear insecurity in the European region. In its 2016 Preliminary Examination Report, the International Criminal Court reported sexual and gender-based crimes committed against civilian men and women in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. As of September 2024, the Office of the General Prosecutor of Ukraine has investigated 342 CRSV cases committed by Russian combatants.  

Russian occupation of Crimea has affected the rights of the indigenous people of Crimea, Crimean Tatars. Hundreds of thousands of Crimean Tatars were forced to change their citizenship, thousands were imprisoned and suffered from xenophobia, religious intolerance in temporarily occupied Crimea, denials of economic, social and cultural rights. Women Crimean Tatars suffer from overburden of care work for their families as their husbands are in prisons as political prisoners. 

The mental and physical health of Ukrainian civilians, women, girls, elderly, and disabled people are suffering every day from missile and Shahed drone attacks. Young Ukrainians are captured in Russian captivity, like Yulia Sokolova, who was imprisoned by Russia in the occupied Ukrainian city of Skadovsk when she was 16 years old. She is a civilian girl who, according to the Geneva Conventions, could not be taken captive in Russia. She has been in a Russian prison in temporarily occupied Crimea for three years. 

The war against Ukraine has changed the women’s and feminist movement in Ukraine, but it’s not stopping it. Ukrainian women activists who try to find Activism – Work – War – Life balance are working for advocacy of women’s rights at the local, national, and global levels, defending the rights of women with disabilities, LBTQI women, and rural and Roma women and supporting them amid new challenges brought by the war.

It is impossible to start peacebuilding initiatives during the most brutal and massive war in Europe since the Second World War. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to inflict a devastating toll on Ukraine and countries of the region UNECE. It is causing severe global repercussions, including terrorist movements and the adverse impact of the war on global food security, energy, nuclear security and safety, and the environment. 

The regional women’s movement must unite for international advocacy to support Ukraine and other countries suffering from the wars. 

We call on the feminists and representatives of the national gender equality machinery to act and fight for peace instead of talking about peacebuilding with aggressors.

We can’t talk about peacebuilding before the sovereignty of Ukraine is renewed according to the internationally recognized borders. Survivors of war crimes have to receive fair and long-term reparations, especially those who survived the CRSV. We urge the international community to support justice for survivors and hold Russia accountable for its crimes.

We believe that the global meeting to review progress in the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action in March 2025 should seriously pay attention to the destruction of security in the UNECE region and human rights violations caused by the war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. In our opinion, politically neutral language such as “conflict and geopolitical tension in the region,” which was used in the concept of the regional meeting, some speeches of participants, and the final NGO statement, does not correspond to the definition of the essence of Russia’s actions against Ukraine and UN General Assembly Resolutions underlying a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace in Ukraine. The Global meeting should pay attention to analysis of the harms and violation of women’s rights in the UNECE region and the condemnation of the corresponding actions of the aggressor country. The WPS should be mainstreamed to analysis of implementation of all Beijing Platforms chapters.

We ask the feminist movement  to not give up and advocate the governments to continue supporting Ukraine. Steadfast support for Ukraine and its victory is the best implementation of the Beijing Platform of Action and prevents wars in other countries. 

Rephrasing the Vienna Conference principle, we ask for “nothing about war-affected countries without these countries and women’s CSOs from these countries.” 

We ask to push Russia to release the Ukrainian journalists and human rights defenders, civilians from captivity and stop shelling Ukraine. 

We ask for an honest and inclusive discussion about the threats to women’s rights implementation stated above and to collaborate on developing strategies to respond to them.  

We ask to integrate the analysis of the impact of Russian aggression against Ukraine and its support of anti-democratic governments into the consolidated regional inputs for the 69th session of the Commission on the Status of Women.

Reform the UN to take effective action to stop wars, as the number of them has increased since Beijing + 25. The number of wars and their scale prove that the system doesn’t work efficiently. 

Signed NGOs representatives and number of independent gender experts and human rights, young feminist activists representatives ABC order